Hyundai planning more daring designs

Apr 25, 2019, 3:40am ETby Ronan Glon

The world will "freak out" over the next-gen Tucson.

The new 2020 Hyundai Sonata wears a considerably more daring design than any of its predecessors. The South Korean company will continue to push the design envelope in the coming years, according to one of its top officials.

"Stay tuned because this is only the beginning... the whole world will freak out over [next-generation Tucson]," said SangYup Lee, Hyundai's global design director, in an interview with Motor Authority.

Lee stopped short of shedding insight into the direction his team is taking the Tucson in. Hyundai has previously indicated it wants to avoid the so-called Russian doll approach to styling, which leads to a line-up of cars that look exactly the same, so odds are the SUV won't simply look like a taller variant of the Sonata. He's not afraid of splitting opinion, however.

"The personality, it doesn't have to be loved by everybody. It has a personality, you like it, you hate it," he said, referring to the grille of the Venue crossover Hyundai introduced during the 2019 New York auto show. He will inject personality -- which Hyundai's previous models have often lacked -- into upcoming designs.

Hyundai hasn't revealed when it will unveil the 2020 Tucson, but Motor Authority predicted we'll see it sooner rather than later.